„Airborne“,
„Helicopter“, „Capoeira“, „Fan kick“
or „Double
Wenson“
–
these are the names of some of the moves, which characterize
Aerobics as a competitive sport. Aerobic gymnasts land in the
splits after a turn, they do turned angle push-ups, leg kicks up
to their nose tips, dive turns or straddled angle jumps, landing
in a push-up…
Dynamics,
power, flexibility and fast beats are
about the words that describe in short what aerobic means as a
competitive sport.
The gymnasts have only one minute and 45 seconds to present their
many-sided skills.
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The
International Gymnastics Federation (F.I.G.) characterizes
aerobics ('Aerobic Gymnastics') as follows:
"Aerobic
gymnastics is the ability to continuously perform
complex moves with high intensity – which have their
origins in the traditional aerobics -
together with music and with a high amount of
perfectly performed complexity elements.
The performance has to possess creativity with perfect
integration of all movements, music and expression.”
Isabela
Lacatus (ROU) >> |
|
This
is not only about the initial boom in the fitness studios, which
was more about fun and moving within a group, by now this is about
tough competitive sports! Increasingly nations with a consequent
forward moving of aerobic gymnastics as a top sport are present at
the top of this discipline worldwide!
In this discipline, typical aerobic
moves, step sequences and choreographies are combined with
obligatory elements. In a competitive comparison with others, the
presentation with music is judged by a jury in a competition.
But if you knows the basic aerobic steps from the fitness course,
you will find them in the competitive exercises.
– the seven basic steps are: „March“,
„Jog“, „Skip“, „Knee lift“, „Jumping Jack“ or
„Lunge“.
Those are obligatory elements, according to the rules – the
„Code of Points“.
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Aerobic
competitions of
this kind are held since the early 1990ies.
There
are different federations holding these competitions. Above all, the
F.I.G. (International gymnastics federations) strives for the
integration of
this discipline into the Olympic programme and tries to unite all
aerobics federations in order to unify the competitions.
The first Aerobic World Championships of the F.I.G. were held in
1995 in Paris (
France
),.
The first European Championships of the UEG were held in 1999
in
Birmingham
(
Great Britain
).
<< Vito IAIA (ROU)
|
The
start categories
The athletes in World, European Championships and World Cups of
the F.I.G. and UEG start in the following five categories:
-
„Individual Woman“
-
„Individual Man“
- „Mixed
Pair“
-
„Trio“
(no matter which sex) and
-
„Group“
(six athletes, no matter of which sex).
The
trio individual and pair starters perform on a competition area
of 7 times 7 metres, the groups perform on an area of 10 times 10
metres.
The
score
In aerobic competitions of the F.I.G. and UEG, there is a
qualification round and the final. The best 8 athletes in each
category participate in the finals; the scores of the
qualification do not count for the final score.
Very
important, beside the appealing choreography and a well-chosen
music, is the correct presentation of the chosen elements of the
categories:
- Dynamic
power
(Group A),
- Static
power (Group
B),
- Jumps
(Group C) and
- Balance
and Flexibility (Group
D)
The gymnasts may show a total of 12 elements, at least one from
each group.
The evaluation of the competition exercise:
-
Artistic score
/ -
Performance score
/ -
Difficulty score.
Altogether, an unlimited number of points can be achieved, in
which there a maximum of ten points each for artistic and
performance. There are discounts for technical mistakes and
mistakes in performance, further for trespassing the competitive
area, for wrong clothing or timeout.
(c) gymmedia, G. Ockert;
translated by J. L. Schmeisser
